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Table of Contents
What's a little Competition?
Broad Question
Would you run faster against people or by yourself?Specific Question
What is the effect of competition on performance?Hypothesis
It is hypothesized the competition will affect the performance of the subjects, and enhance the performance of all subjects. This is hypothesized because when someone is competing against someone else, they feel pressured to perform better than the others around them. When someone is not competing against someone else, they don't feel that need to perform better.
Graph of Hypothesis
Variables
Independent Variable:
Amount of competitionDependent Variable:
Subjects' time difference between trialsVariables That Need To Be Controlled:
-Temperature-Wind speed
-Stamina of subjects
-Shoes of subjects
-Place of trials
-Distance of running
-Explanation to different subjects
-Stopwatch used to time subjects
-Time of day
-Amount of performance- enhancing drugs used (hopefully none). I am not attempting at a joke, this is a real variable and could sway the experiment greatly. It is hopeful that nobody will use these.
Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
Stamina: Energy, Endurance level.
Suicide: Aside from, well, the other thing; a suicide is also a running activity. A person runs from one place to another and back again many times. To see a suicide, scroll down to our videos.Competition: In this case, others trying to perform the same task as you, people to compete against.
General Plan
During the morning of a school day (when the gym was not in use) with permission, a subject was taken from his\her class they were in and was taken to the gym. They were asked to run a suicide- it was explained if they did not know what a suicide was- to certain spots marked in tape. Their running was filmed, timed, and the time was put in a table under the subjects’ name. After this was done ten times, all the previous subjects were gathered and asked to perform suicides the next day, each being given a certain area to do this in which was marked in duct tape.After the running was done by the subjects, the times were compared and a conclusion was made as to whether or not competition effected performance.
Potential Problems And Solutions
Problem: Some subjects do not show for group trial.Solution: Reschedule and tell all subjects.
Safety Or Environmental Concerns
If a person falls, they could have minor injuries. Some people might also push too hard and strain their muscles.Experimental Design
Number Of Trials:
There will be two trials.Number Of Subjects In Each trial:
Each trial, there will be seven people.When data will be collected:
Data will be collected during the experiment trials.Number of Observations:
There will be two observations for each subject: one for each trial.Where data will be collected:
Data will be collected in the gymnasium, where the experiment trials will be conducted.Resources and Budget Table
-permission from Mr. Yahna to leave class and go to the gym.-permission to use the gym from Mr. Pick.
-test subjects (students)
-Stopwatch from Mr. Yahna’s room
-flip cameras from Frank and Mr. Yahna
-parent permission slip
Total cost: $0
Timeline
Background Research
-Dave Scott and Mark Allen were neck and neck in an ironman and, using one another, Allen was able to beat the previous record by 20 minutes.-Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile in 1954 and 2 months later, 2 more people did it, and then more and more people did it once people knew it was possible they were able to do it.
-In September of 2010, novice golfers were asked to putt under varying levels of competition. They were found to perform worse under competition. After, expert golfers were asked to putt under varying levels of competition. they were found to perform better under competition.
References
Fitzgerald, Matt. "Does Competition Boost Performance? | Active.com."Online Registration & Local Event Directory by Active.com | Sports, Running, Classes, Camps, Training Plans, Triathlons, Marathons, Soccer, Drills & Youth Sports. Version 01.
Active.com, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Does-Competition-Boost-Performance.htm>.
"Four-minute mile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Version 01.
Wikipedia, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile>.
Cooke, Andrew Michael. " Effects of Competition on Performance." Effects of Competition on Performance .
Version 01. University of Birmingham, 1 Sept. 2011.Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
<http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/1125/1/Cooke_10_PhD.pdf>
Detailed Procedure
Results
All Raw Data
Graphs
Photos
Data Analysis
Conclusion
The experiment question was “What is the effect of competition on a person’s performance level?” The question was answered, and the answer is “Not only does competition have an effect on someone’s performance level, the effect is also positive.” The data from the experiment trials shows this. The average subject running time (SRT) without competition, 27.18 seconds, is 0.23 seconds longer than the SRT with competition, 26.18 seconds. All but one subject had a better SRT without competition compared to their time with competition, with a .35 second difference between both times.Discussion
Discussion: The original question was, Does competing affect performance? The results were not too easy to come with an answer but judging on the results it really didn’t make a difference. In the end competing was 0.37 seconds faster on average than when alone. So you could say that competing makes you go a little faster.It was hypothesized that competition would increase performance. I thought it would because all of my research suggested that it would. The research made it sound like competing would increase people's performances more significantly.
The only real trend was that all the times were within 5 seconds of each other. It was also suggested that the results would be better if the subjects were running a longer distance and if more people were in the experiment.
There were a few problems that arose in the design of the experiment. One was how to control the environment of the trials, for temperature and wind speed would definitely affect the times of the subjects. It was then chosen to go through the trials in the gym. Another was, when all subjects ran together, how would all the times be measured? This was also figured out by the idea of getting the subjects their own personal stopwatches, so they could time themselves.
There also arose many problems after the design. For one, some of the subjects did not pass in permission slips that needed to be signed by their parents, and many passed them in later than expected. This shortened the time available to run the experiment. Another obstacle was school- related events taking place in the gym. From JBES’s phys-ed teacher, it was known trials on Mondays would not work. The experiment could also not be performed when classes were using the gym or during certain events, such as the MWV Reality Fair. This also limited the days for experiment trials. With the problem of the permission slips, a deadline date could’ve been set on when the slips needed to be back by. This was originally not thought to be a problem. It isn’t known how it could have prepared for other classes using the gym, but events like Reality Fair are on our Middle School calendar and it would have been wise to check it.
To conduct the experiment, no real information was used. Flip camcorders were used to record the running, and school- grade stopwatches were used to keep the time. If someone were to learn about this question in the future, the results would tell them that competition has no real effect on performance.
Benefit to Community and/or Science
This does benefit other people because some people like to train together in some sports such as running, biking, and swimming. Most people think that when you are accompanied by others while doing these activities you will push yourself to go faster and further, but our experiment doesn't show that it really makes a difference.Abstract
In this experiment, we sought out to ask the question: "Does competition have an effect on performance?" To answer the question, several students were chosen to physically perform in two levels of competition: One level with no competition, and another with all subjects running together as competition among themselves. The subjects were asked to perform suicides while two scientists were timing their running. This was done with each subject separately. A few days later, all the subjects were timed doing suicides together. Each subjects' time with and without competition was compared to each other and the conclusion was made that competition has minimal or no effect on performance whatsoever.